Table games that represent other popular games are enjoyed by many around the world. Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world, and as such, soccer is commonly represented via a table game. For example, button soccer (also known as button football or “Futebol de Mesa”) is a soccer representing table game popular in Brazil and Hungary, as well as other countries in Europe. Subbuteo is a group of table top games representing team sports, most popularly soccer. For example, button soccer and Subbuteo both involve scoring a goal by flicking or moving pieces representing field positions.
Particularly, in button soccer, small disks representing field positions are moved by applying a downward force via a small finger-held disk, the finger-held disk approximately having a same size as the field position disks. Upon being subjected to an appropriate downward force, the field position disks propel forward to strike a game ball for passing, dribbling or ultimately for scoring a goal. A goal is guarded by a goalie block, which an offensive player must bypass in a shot to score a goal. In the example of Subbuteo, field position pieces are moved via a player's finger, by finger flicking for example. These common soccer representing table top games usually include or are based on typical rules of soccer.
Cue sports (i.e. billiards or billiard type games), are very popular throughout the world. Cue sports such as pocket billiards (otherwise known as pool), provide an exciting table top, turn-based strategic game requiring great skill, finesse, and strategy to beat or outsmart an opponent. For example, a skilled billiards player generally strategically plans the trajectory and placement of a cue ball after striking the cue ball to score a point or sink a target ball. Many enjoy the feeling of striking a cue ball with a cue stick, which provides unique control over ball trajectories before and after impact. For example, in billiards, angles and trajectories of balls can be controlled with finesse to beat or outsmart an opponent. As another example, a cue ball may be struck in particular ways to provide spin (i.e. english).
Table top soccer games will benefit from the advancement of including various cue sport configurations and rules. There are existing patents that disclose billiards games played on tables including soccer-representing figurines, however these patents are limited to directly striking a ball with a cue stick, and lack the strategy and feel of billiards. For example, the feeling of striking a cue object to cause another object to travel into a target is missing from these patents. Therefore, there exists a market and desire for a table top game that uniquely incorporates elements of cue sports and table top soccer games in a novel and useful manner to provide a strategic feel of billiards while representing soccer.